Handlebars
by Tau'ri42
Summary: Gellert can ride his bike with no handlebars, unfortunately he doesn't stop there.


The characters belong to JKR and the song to the flobots. I am none of these people.

* * *

_I can ride my bike with no handlebars  
No handlebars  
No handlebars  
_  
_I can ride my bike with no handlebars  
No handlebars  
No handlebars_

Albus was sat in the garden when it happened. He was calmly reflecting on something he had read the day before when a large object came hurtling through the air towards him. Before it crashed only a few feet from where he was sat, he had time to see that it was a young man on a broomstick. The strange thing was that the young man did not appear to be even trying to steer, in fact he was waving his hands in the air.

_Look at me, look at me  
hands in the air like it's good to be  
ALIVE _

The young man did not seem at all bothered by what had happened. He detangled himself from his broomstick and stood up, apparently unharmed. It was at this point that he noticed Albus sat quietly watching him.

"Sorry about that, looks like I still need more practice."

A million questions buzzed in Albus's head including such obvious ones as "Who are you?" and "Why are you in my garden?" However in the end his inquisitive side won out and he ended up asking, "What were you trying to do?"

"Fly without using my hands to steer."

"But why?"

"Because I can't, therefore I must learn."

"It seems to me like nothing more than a good way to injure yourself."

"Not if I learn to do it right."

"But what purpose would that serve? Just because we can do something it dos not always mean that we should."

"And why not? If we are not constantly striving to better ourselves, how can we ever hope to fulfil our true potential."

"You intend to do fulfil your true potential by crashing your broomstick?"

"If that's what it takes, yes."

Albus considered this for a moment and then held out his hand. "Albus Dumbledore pleased to meet you."

"Gellert Grindelwald, are those sherbet lemons?"

_And I'm a famous rapper  
even when the paths're all crookedy  
I can show you how to do-si-do  
I can show you how to scratch a record _

"What is that?"

"It's a record player, muggle invention. I've tweaked it of course. Now rather than putting muggle records in it, you put in your actual memories of music and it plays them back to you perfectly, like this."

Albus watched in fascination as Gellert put his wand to his temple and pulled out a long strand of silvery substance. He opened the player and placed the memory inside it where it began to spin in a circle where the record should be. The room was immediately filled with beautiful classical music.

_I can take apart the remote control  
And I can almost put it back together_

"How did you know?"

"How did I know what?"

"That's my favourite song."

Gellert just smiled.

_I can tie a knot in a cherry stem  
I can tell you about Leif Ericson  
I know all the words to "De Colores"  
And "I'm Proud to be an American" _

"But that's just a children's story!"

"Not entirely, it was exaggerated over the years as all stories are. I find it highly unlikely that the brothers actually met death for example, but that does not mean the hallows are not real. The brothers most likely created them themselves."

"And you think the cloak is here?"

"I believe so, I have traced it to a family named Potter. Do you know anyone of that name?"

"I can't say I do, but that means nothing. My parents have always kept to themselves so if the family has no children at hogwarts I would not know them."

"It does not matter now anyway, the wand is the most important of the hallows. Once we have that the others will follow. Just imagine it Albus, if we could reunite them. Dumbledore and Grindelwald, masters of death."

_Me and my friend saw a platypus  
Me and my friend made a comic book  
And guess how long it took  
I can do anything that I want cuz, look: _

Albus often found himself looking at that picture. It had been taken on his birthday and the frame had been given to him by Gellert. It was a simple picture, just two boys smiling at the camera and waving. But it seemed to him to contain everything his life now stood for. The frame was another of Gellert's experiments; it would change colour and shape to match the room it was in. At the moment it was a deep sea blue, the same colour as Gellert's eyes.

_I can keep rhythm with no metronome  
No metronome  
No metronome _

Albus had never before met someone who could duel like Gellert could. They matched each other perfectly; there was a kind of rhythm to their mock battles that Albus loved. They could go on for hours, each experimenting without fear of hurting the other.

And I can see your face on the telephone  
On the telephone  
On the telephone

Merlin was not impressed, this was the sixth letter he had been asked to carry in one evening. What could be so important that it cold not wait until the morning? It wasn't like the two boys never saw each other, they were practically inseparable. He wondered why Albus didn't just ask Gellert to come and live with them and be done with it.

He arrived at the house to find Gellert at his window waiting. Did that boy never sleep? As soon has the letter had been removed he took off again through the window without waiting to see if there was a reply. He had had enough; he was going hunting.

After that Merlin refused to carry any more letters between Albus and Gellert. As a result they spent even more time together, it was as if they could not bear to be apart for more than five minutes.

_Look at me  
Look at me  
Just called to say that it's good to be  
ALIVE _

_In such a small world  
I'm all curled up with a book to read _

They would stay up into the small hours of the morning planning. Albus's bed would be covered with books and the floor would be a foot deep in parchment. It would be completely silent apart from the occasional scratching of a quill or the turning of a page. Dozens of candles flickered in the darkness throwing shadows across the room and illuminating the earnest faces of the two boys. By this time they would be too tired to talk but too awake to sleep, caught up in the magic of what they were going to do.

_I can make money open up a thrift store  
I can make a living off a magazine  
I can design an engine sixty four  
Miles to a gallon of gasoline _

"Take my record player, it is a perfect example of what I mean. The muggles created it, we _improved_ it. A lack of magic has made them incredibly creative; they can conceive of things that we never could in a million years. Their music and stories, such wasted potential. They are like lost sheep Albus, always searching for a meaning to their dull and insignificant lives. If we could unite the two societies and channel that energy into something useful just imagine how much better the world would be. With our guidance and our protection we could make them understand, what happened to your sister would never have to happen again."

It was that thought which really inspired Albus. Everything they had done, everything they would do in the future. It was all for the greater good.

_I can make new antibiotics  
I can make computers survive aquatic conditions  
I know how to run a business  
I can make you wanna buy a product _

Gellert reminded Albus of a phoenix. Intelligent, beautiful, and likely to burst into flame at any moment. He would be constantly jumping from one idea to the next and seemed to crackle with unlimited energy. Albus was the only one able to keep up with him, an outsider listening to their conversations would be completely baffled by the speed at which they took place. The two boys seemed almost able to read each others minds.

_Movers shakers and producers  
Me and my friends understand the future  
_

"You and me Albus, together we could really do this. I never thought I would find someone who I actually trusted to help me, now I see how foolish I was. This cannot be done by one man; that is why others have always failed. But together Albus, together we can do anything!"

_I see the strings that control the systems  
__I can do anything with no assistance  
Cuz I can lead a nation with a microphone  
With a microphone  
With a microphone _

"Ariana!" Screamed Albus and Aberforth simultaneously. Neither had seen their sister enter the room. It had all happened so suddenly. It was too late.

_And I can split the atom of a molecule  
__Of a molecule  
__Of a molecule_

Gellert left that night. Albus felt like a part of him had been torn away. He thought about contacting his friend many times but something always stopped him. He could not bear to know; he did not know which answer would be more painful for him.

* * *

Years passed and Dumbledore heard nothing of his old friend. Then he began to hear whispers, and before long they became news. Strange happenings in Europe, and rumours, rumours that the elder wand had once again been found. After that it all began to happen at once. First Grindelwald rose to power in Germany. He was unopposed; handsome and charismatic, the people loved him.

_Look at me  
Look at me  
Driving and I won't stop  
And it feels so good to be  
Alive and on top_

Then it all started to go wrong, people who disagreed with his policies began to disappear. He started a muggle war and in the confusion seized power over all of Western Europe.

_My reach is global  
My tower secure  
My cause is noble  
My power is pure _

Dumbledore didn't know what to do. He had had no idea that Grindelwald was still intending to carry out the plan without him. But this wasn't the plan; there was no war in the plan. Millions of people were dying; Grindelwald still claimed that it was for 'the greater good'. But it wasn't, he had gone too far, it wasn't supposed to happen like this.

_I can hand out a million vaccinations  
Or let'em all die in exasperation  
Have'em all healed of their lacerations  
Have'em all killed by assassination  
I can make anybody go to prison  
Just because I don't like'em and  
__I can do anything with no permission  
I have it all under my command _

"It's been nearly five years Dumbledore, this can't go on!" Exclaimed the short man in front of him.

"I don't understand what you mean."

"Stop being so modest. You know as well as I do that you are the only one who can stop him."

"You flatter me minister, I do not pretend to be anywhere near as powerful a wizard as Grindelwald."

"Then why is he so afraid of you?"

"Again you have lost me."

"Surely you can't be that naïve, you must have realised by now. You are the only thing stopping him from invading Britain."

"Really? Who told you that?"

"Everyone knows it."

"Well sorry to disappoint everyone but I'm afraid it is not true."

"Then why hasn't he invaded yet?"

"I'm sure he's just biding his time, it will not be much longer."

"And there is nothing you can do about it."

"No, the only person who can stop him is himself."

_Because I can guide a missile by satellite  
By satellite  
By satellite _

Despite his conversation with the minister Dumbledore did intend to do something. He would just rather do it without the ministry breathing down his neck. If it went wrong he did not want the entire wizarding world watching.

_And I can hit a target through a telescope  
Through a telescope  
Through a telescope_

"So we meet again at last, I have missed you Albus."

"Indeed, I don't suppose there is much point in me asking you to stop this madness?"

"You assume correctly, you always did know me too well."

"You are right of course, there was a time when I knew you as well as I knew myself, but that time is long gone. You have changed, or maybe you were always like this and I was just too foolish to see it."

"It is not too late for you to join me Albus."

"I don't think so. I have seen the world you created and I would like no part in it."

"Then I suppose there is nothing for it but for us to fight. I did hope it wouldn't come to this. It is a terrible waste of such a brilliant mind._ Avada Kedavra!_"

_And I can end the planet in a holocaust  
In a holocaust  
In a holocaust  
_

There had never been a duel like it. Jets of coloured light shot from the two wands lit up the evening sky like fireworks. People gathered to watch but it never entered their minds to interfere. This was between Dumbledore and Grindelwald, the two most powerful wizards the world had ever known.

_In a holocaust  
In a holocaust  
In a holocaust _

It was so sudden that no one could say how it had happened. Dumbledore was standing over his enemy holding both wands. But Dumbledore knew what had happened, the only way he could have won. Grindelwald had let him.

"Why?" He whispered.

"Because it's not the same. However hard I tried nothing happened how it was supposed to. I tried to do it peacefully at first but they wouldn't listen, they didn't understand what I was trying to do. So I got angry. I needed your help, and you weren't there. It was supposed to be both of us, leading the world for the greater good. But that's not what happened, it all went wrong. I thought I could persuade you to join me again but now I see that will never happen; so I surrender."

Dumbledore had no choice but to make sure Grindelwald was locked up for good, the world would not have expected any less. Whatever his intentions Grindelwald had committed terrible crimes and had to be punished accordingly. Dumbledore was celebrated as a hero, the one who had defeated the most powerful dark wizard of all time.

If only they realised, thought Dumbledore, how close I was to _becoming_ the most powerful dark wizard of all time.

_I can ride my bike with no handlebars  
No handlebars  
__No handlebars_

_I can ride my bike with no handlebars  
No handlebars  
__No handlebars_


End file.
